


Relief

by mithrel



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Blanket Permission, Character Study, Gen, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-22
Updated: 2009-05-22
Packaged: 2017-11-11 01:04:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the movie, Pike reflects on his changed circumstances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Relief

Pike signed yet another form and sighed. This promotion was meant to be a reward, and he supposed it was, in a way. However much he wanted to be out there, he couldn’t. He hadn’t been young when he’d gone over to Nero’s ship, and although the damage the parasite had wrought on his nervous system had been corrected, it had left him weakened–too weak for space duty.

He sighed. The face in the mirror every morning looked different–his hair had gone gray, and there were new lines of pain around his eyes. He’d had twenty-five years in space, and that would have to be enough.

His thoughts turned to Kirk, and he smiled. Kirk had changed a lot since he first met him. He was no longer the brash young man who had challenged the entire security division of his graduating class–nor was he the stowaway who’d frantically burst onto the bridge to tell him they were warping into a trap. He’d matured–changed so much as to be almost unrecognizable. He wasn’t sure what had done it. Maybe it was the _Enterprise._ Maybe it was command, knowing he was responsible for the lives of his crew. Maybe it was space itself–nothing punctured an overblown ego like being surrounded by millions of kilometers of nothingness.

Whatever it had been, Kirk looked like he was well on his way to being a hell of a captain. A little raw, still, a little rough around the edges, like the rest of the crew, but full of potential, all of them–he’d seen that when he was Captain.

So, he was planetbound. It was time to pass the torch to the next generation. “I am relieved,” he’d said when Kirk took over his command. Those words were not merely a transfer of command; he’d meant them. If he had to be replaced by anyone, he was glad it was someone like Kirk, who’d fight for his crew, Earth and the Federation to his last breath.


End file.
